A Cross-Layer UMTS/WLAN Handover algorithm

Using optimized MIH

Han Yu Zhibin Gao Lianfen Huang*
M.E. Department of CE, M.E. Department of CE, Associate Professor, Department of
Xiamen University, Xiamen University, CE,
Xiamen, Fujian, China Xiamen, Fujian, China Xiamen University,
Xiamen, Fujian, China
Email: lfhuang@xmu.edu.cn *

Abstract—Nowadays, WLAN Hotspots can provide various

wireless services in any given time or place. With the
development of multi-mode terminals, the researches on WLAN
technology as the extension of UMTS are undergoing. The IEEE
802.21 standard is a candidate which can provide solutions for
seamless handover among heterogeneous networks. In this paper,
we propose an enhanced UMTS/WLAN handover mechanism
with modification on MIH (Media Independent Handover) and
the handover decision algorithm. From the simulation results
obtained by Network Simulation-2.29, the better practicality of
the proposed approach is verified.

Keywords-UMTS-WLAN; FMIP; Optimized MIH; Handover

Decision Algorithm; NS-2.29

I. INTRODUCTION
With rapid development of mobile and wireless
communication technologyies, the future mobile users will use
different access technology such as Ethernet, WLAN,
WiMAX, and UMTS. Hence, it is necessary to solve a variety
of access technologies and the interoperability problems of
inter-networks to achieve the mobility and services continuity.
However, with the wireless network and IP network are
integrated, it is crucial to solve real-time transparency, and
seamless service for IP users. Among many wireless network
systems, UMTS provides wide network coverage and can
support high-speed mobility. However, its data transfer rate is
low and causes high cost, which can not meet the high-speed
data transmission requirements; while WLAN supports high-
speed data transmission with low cost, but its coverage is
small, which limits the support for mobility. Therefore, UMTS-
WLAN integration can take full advantage of their own
strengths to compensate their deficiencies. Thus there is
requirement for efficient mechanisms for seamless handover
between UMTS-WLAN networks. The mechanism should
guarantee the Quality of Service (QoS) of the system, i.e., no
disruption in service which can be recognized by users.
There are tight coupling and loose coupling mobility
management solutions, as shown in Figure 1. In the first two
scenarios, WLAN is connected to the UMTS network through
an entity that emulating a BSS and an entity that emulating an
SGSN, respectively. In the third scenario, a mobility gateway is
deployed in the operator backbone network which is connected
to both the WLAN and the GGSN of UMTS. For the last
Figure 1. Coupling ways between UMTS and WLAN networks
scenario, MIP is used and through Home Agent (HA). Among
these proposed mobility management solutions, Mobile IPv6
(MIPv6) [1] has been widely accepted in the academic world
and industry as the frontier technology to tackle these
challenges.
To keep the ongoing communications of the mobile node
(MN), MIPv6 hides the network movement from the higher
layer. The large handover latency in MIPv6 degrades the QoS
of real-time services in heterogeneous networks. The overall
handover latency in MIPv6 consists of Layer 2(L2) and Layer
3 (L3) handover latency. The L2 handover latency is the period
when the MN is disconnected from the air-link of the current
Access Router (AR) till the time it connects to the air-link of
the new AR [2]. The L3 handover latency comprises the
latencies incurred during IP layer movement detection, network
authentication, CoA configuration, and BU. Currently, there
are several standard mobility management protocols such as
Hierarchical Mobile IP (HMIPv6, add Mobility Anchor Point
to be responsible for the management in the local
management)[3], Fast Handovers for Mobile IPv6 (FMIPv6, A
way of pre-binding process to reduce the required time to
obtain a new IP) [4], and Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6,
NETLMM, Network-based Localized Mobility Management,

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IETF WG) [5]). Also, there are some schemes introduced
which utilize the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP, use a re-
invite signaling to support mid-call mobility) for support
mobility. All the above schemes focus on L3 with the help of
L2, which can provide much information to support mobility
management at L3 or above. But each protocol deals with
mobility problems by means of depending on the others, thus
leads to unnecessary time delay in the whole handover process.
Furthermore, they do not take the advantages of multiple
network interfaces which are available in recent mobile devices.
To provide enhanced vertical handover mechanisms across
the 802.X and the 3GPP/3GPP2 family of networks, and define
internetworking functionalities, IEEE launched a related
research in January 2003. It sets up a working group which is
devoted to the development of 802.21 standards from January
2004 [6]. In this paper, we propose a new UMTS-WLAN
handover mechanism which uses IEEE802.21 Information
Services (IS) to tackle the issues related to radio access
discovery and candidate AR discovery in MIPv6. We also
propose a handover decision algorithm for the handover
mechanism.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In
Section II, we introduce the MIH protocol and information
services. Proposed architecture and explicit fast seamless
handover procedure are presented in section III. Section IV
depicts the simulation results and evaluates the performance of
our mechanism by illustrating the obtained results from the
Network Simulation Tool. At last, we present conclusion in
Section V.
II. 802.21 FRAMEWORK
A. Briefly introduce the MIH Protocol[6]
The core idea of 802.21 is the introduction of a new
functional module (Media Independent Handover Function,
MIHF) which operates between L2 and L3. The MIHF and its
relationship with higher and lower layer protocol entities are
depicted in Figure. 2. MIHFs exist in the terminal and network
equipments, which can define unified service access points
(MIH_SAP). To the higher floor, through MIH_SAP which is
independent on the access technology, MIHF communicates
with various mobile management protocols, such as MIPv6,
SIP; while to the lower floor, MIHF accesses to a variety of
MAC and controls them through different service access points
(MIH_LINK_SAP). MIHF mainly offer three types of
services: Media Independent Event Service (MIES), Media
Independent Command Service (MICS), and Media
Independent Information Service (MIIS). MIES supports local
or remote clients to obtain event notification, where clients can
be any protocol or application. For each client (registered user),
it can receive link layer incidents from MIES notification, e.g.
Link UP (LUP), Link Down (LD), and Link Going Down
(LGD), etc. MICS can allow MIH users to obtain particular
information, or send out a command after MIH users have
made a decision, e.g. MIH Get Status, and MIH Switch, etc.
MIIS offers an information repository that can preserve
relevant information for inquiring purpose. These inquiries can
help the decision algorithm to make accurate decision or
facilitate handover.
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Figure 2. Media Independent Handover Services Model
B. Media Independent Information Services
MIIS provides information about the characteristics and
services of the serving and neighboring networks when the MN
is moving .This information is used to optimize the handover
decision and increase the efficiency of the system. Specific
information elements and the necessary query-response
mechanisms are defined in the context of MIIS. MIIS typically
provides static link layer parameters such as the names and
providers of the neighboring networks, channel information,
MAC address and security information. However, dynamic
information can be provided as well. These information can be
available either through lower layers or upper layers.
Information exchange through upper layers takes place when
the information of the lower layers is not enough in order to
make efficient and optimized handover decision. Hence, in the
FMIPv6, with the help of MIH_Information Request, MN gets
the heterogeneous neighbor information by requesting
Information Elements (IEs) from the IS and the standard of
FMIPv6 RtSolPr/PrRtAdv signaling interaction can be
abolished. In our proposed mechanism, because of the
abolishing, MN reduces the handover latency in the FMIPv6 to
speed up configure CoA. It also can reduce the possibility of
ping-pong movement [7].
III. PROPOSED MECHANISM USING OPTIMIZED MIH
The considered scenario consists of one WLAN cell located
inside a UMTS cell. It is assumed that one MN (equipped with
multiple interfaces 802.11and UMTS) connects to UMTS
before it traverses the WLAN coverage area. The WLAN
interface is assumed to be the preferred interface, which means
that if both the WLAN and the UMTS interfaces are available,
the MN is set to use the WLAN interface for its application
flows. Therefore, the MN performs two handovers in this
scenario. The first handover from the UMTS cell to the WLAN
cell is performed when the MN enters the coverage area of the
WLAN AP. The other handover between the WLAN cell and
the UMTS is performed when the MN leaves the coverage area
of the WLAN AP. Note that when the MN enters the WLAN
hotspot, it still has a connection through the UMTS interface.
Therefore, when the association is being established with the
WLAN AP, the MN can still use the UMTS interface for its
data. When the MN leaves the WLAN cell, the MN cannot use
the WLAN interface during the time required to redirect the
data flow on the UMTS interface.
A. Enhanced Handover from UMTS to WLAN
As it is shown in Figure 3, the detailed signaling flows for
handover from UMTS to WLAN in our proposed mechanism
using optimized MIH are summarized as follows:
1)First of all, the MIHF in MN which starts in the UMTS
coverage area subscribes a case so that when there is a new link
to access the network, MIHF will be notified. When the MN is
approaching the WLAN hotspot gradually, it receives a beacon
from the AP and explores the change of the bottom of link
information, including the link-speed rate, QoS parameters.
The MIHF in the MN receives a corresponding indication from
L2.
2) The MN interacts with the Information Server to obtain
Link layer and network information (L3 information) of the
neighbor network, and decides the necessity of handover and
which AP to connect. Because of the interaction, the standard
of FMIPv6, RtSolPr/PrRtAdv signaling interaction can be
abolished.
3)Since the WLAN interface is the preferred interface to
use and choose the best target AP, MN requests a connection to
the AP by MIH _ Handover _ Initiate request, and then the
UMTS BS forward MIH_Handover_Prepare_Request message
to the target AP in order to inform the AP MN’s forthcoming
handover to its network. If the AP accept the attach request, it
will acknowledge.
4) The MIHF in UMTS sends a MIH _Handover _Initiate_
respond to the MN. This activity triggers the MN to send
MIH_Handover_Commit request to MIHF of the target AP and
start the L2 association stage. At the same time, MN sends
FBU message to start MIP binding update.
Figure 3. The signaling flow for enhanced handover from UMTS to WLAN
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5) Once the layer 2 handover is established, a Link UP
indication is generated by the MAC and then sent to the MIHF.
MIH_Handover_Complete request is sent to the target AP to
indicate establishment of new link.
6) After the MN receives Forward response from the target
AP, it redirects the flow on to the WLAN interface.
B. Handover from WLAN to UMTS
When the MN is leaving the WLAN hotspot, the MN
anticipates the degradation of signal quality and generates a
Link _Going _Down event as it gets close to the AP’s coverage
area boundary. The detailed procedures when the MN is
leaving the WLAN hotspot are summarized as follows:
1) The MN in the WLAN coverage area is moving out. As
the MN is approaching the border of the WLAN hotspot, the
MAC generates a Link Going Down event based on the
proposed handover decision algorithm.
2) Upon the receipt of the Link_Going_Down event, the
MIH forwards the information to the Handover module, which
leads to a flow redirection on to the UMTS interface. The
UMTS interface is already configured (i.e., there is no need to
discover a default router or to create a new address).
C. Proposed Handover Decision Algorithm
Based on the above descriptions, MN approaches to WLAN,
and discoveries the existence of WLAN through the detection
of link-layer, and MN will start to handover to WLAN until
Received Signal Strength gradually increases and exceeds the
threshold; on the contrary, MN discoveries WLAN network
signal strength declined gradually, and will start to trigger
Link_Going_Down Indication case. Thus we design a specific
Trigger decision model as follows: Acess Router（Internet IPv6） CN

Rh = (Pr × Th - Pow) / (Pr × Th - Th) (1) GSN

RNC HA IS(Information
Server)
While the Trigger decision model in FMIPv6 is as follows:
Rh (Pr ) = Pow/ Th (2) UMTS BS
In our proposed mechanism, where Pow is MN's received
802.11
WLAN signal strength, which can be detected by the bottom; AP
Th is the signal strength of the preset threshold. If the signal MN
strength is lower than Th, the link would be lost; Pr is signal Direction of MN ’s Movement
factor whose values greater than one; Rh, is the decision to
trigger the handover. When Pow exceeds Pr × Th, it will trigger Figure 5. The network architecture for simulation
Link_Going_Down to handover from UMTS to WLAN. The
Pow gradually decay to [Th, Pr ×Th], which triggers to generate cells (disk with a radius = 20m) and a full coverage of UMTS
a Link Going Down to handover from WLAN to UMTS. We technology. The links of MN-WLAN and MN-UMTS BS are
can adjust Pr according to specific conditions. wireless, the others are wired. Firstly, Pr = 1.05, and increases
by 0.05 until Pr = 2.0. When Pr is fixed, MN starts to move at a
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS random time t = i s (i is a random number between 2 and 10)
along a straight line at the fixed speed of 1m/s and then stop
A. 802.21 Model in Network Simulation-2.29 after 120s. The MN enters WLAN cell after 10s and leaves
The MIH functionality has been implemented in the NS- after 110s. The CN begins to forward data after 20s. The traffic
2.29 by United States National Institute of Standards and for the study is with a constant rate, with a packet size of 500
Technology (NIST). The MIH model consists of seven bytes at application layer and interarrival packet time of 0.02s
procedures as shown in Figure 4. But the NIST is not complete, (83kbps) which approaches VoIP. According to the different
thus we extend protocols of UMTS and WLAN to support the time that MN starts, 10 different emulations have been done.
MIH protocol, modify decision algorithm according to section Then, we can obtain different Thandover (handover delay) and
III and extend MIH to support the interact between MN and Ploss (handover packet loss) which can be determined as,
Information Server. The simulation will verify practicality of i =10
UMTS-WLAN heterogeneous network handover by adding a Thandover | Pr = ∑ T ( i ) handover /10
modified MIH between L2 and L3, as the Section III presents. i =1 (2)
B. Simulation Setup i =10

The considered scenario for computer simulation consists of Ploss | Pr = ∑ P ( i ) loss / 10 (3)
i =1
a router, a GSN, a HA, a RNC, a 802.11 AP, IS and UMTS
station, as shown in Figure 5. The specific scenario analysis is
based on indoor environment with a non-overlapping WLAN C. Evaluation of the results
As we can see from Figure 6, using our proposed
mechanism under different conditions Thandover are fairly stable
and keep at about 0.17s, which can be used for real-time
services. In our proposed mechanism, because of removing the
DRtSolPr,/DPrRtAdv (RtSolPr/PrRtAdv delay), THI(anticipation
time )is reduced. THI is

THI = DFBU + DFBACK (4)

DFBU , DFBACK is the update delay, While in FMIPv6, THI is

THI = DRtSol Pr + DPrRtAdv + DFBU + DFBACK (5)

Besides, the L2 handover time is reduced by eliminating the
“discovery” phase in the proposed mechanism. Therefore, the
overall handover delay is

DHO - proposed mechanism = DReauthentication + DMN - HA (6)

Hence, Thandover( DHO - proposed mechanism ) is lower than the other

handover algorithms which do not adopt MIH such as FMIPv6.
Figure 4. The MIH model in NS-2.29

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 Handover Delay
The Compare of Packet Loss from WLAN TO UMTS
0.175
60
WLAN TO UMTS
WLAN TO UMTS using FMIPv6
UMTS TO WLAN
WLAN TO UMTS using proposed decision
0.17 50
Tdelay/s

the amount of packet loss

0.165 40

0.16 30

0.155 20
1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Pr
10
Figure 6. Handover Delay
0
From Figure.7, when handover from UMTS to WLAN, the 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9
handover causes much less packet loss, as compared with the Pr

WLAN to UMTS handover. This is a result of the priority of

the WLAN network. In our proposed scheme, the MN is Figure 8. The Compare of Packet Loss using proposed mechanism
(handover decision algorithm) and using FMIPv6
maintaining communication with the UMTS’s base station all
along, which ensures the whole process of UMTS to WLAN
without packet loss. So it is better than other handover V. CONCLUSION
algorithms. When the MN from the WLAN to UMTS, the
trigger decision relies solely on information about the WLAN In this paper, we propose an enhanced cross-layer
signal. The decision to switch to UMTS is unable to provide UMTS/WLAN handover mechanism. The mechanism obtains
enough signal strength to reach the QoS requirements. the trigger handover by introducing MIH link to collect the
Triggering the WLAN to UMTS handover through a Link underlying information. MN interacts with MIH Information
Going Down event leads the loss of the WLAN connection. Services defined in IEEE 802.21. And then MN can obtain the
Therefore, if the event is made fast enough, the handover can nAR’s information without router discovery or
be smooth (i.e. without any packet loss). If redirecting the RtSolPr/PrRtAdv messages. Therefore, the proposed scheme
traffic flow can be completed before the MN disconnects from can reduce the handover latency in the MIPv6 by removing
the WLAN hotspot, the traffic flow is uninterrupted and the router discovery time. Moreover, we also modify the
resumed on the UMTS interface. handover decision algorithm and verify practicality of the
In our mechanism, the Trigger decision model add the mechanism by the Network Simulation 2.29. The simulation
factor Pr instead of depending on the receive strength simply results show that the better performance can be achieved as
and WLAN interface is the preferred interface. So it can avoid compared with the traditional scheme. In the future, full-IP
the shortcoming that the signal strength of WLAN and UMTS core networks will be based on the different configuration of
are incomparable. As we can see from Figure 8, according to the networks, thus the proposed mechanism can contribute to
the different Pr, the performance of the proposed mechanism heterogeneous networks handover of “seamless end to end
can be fairly stable (the packet loss is about 25), and the packet services”.
loss of using FMIPv6 change from 50 to 30. Hence, the
simulation results show our scheme can achieve less packet REFERENCES
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Figure 7. Handover Packet Loss

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